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Baby ‘frozen’ to save his life

A baby has amazed doctors with his rapid recovery after being chilled for four days after heart surgery.

Four-month-old Finley Burton had surgery at Newcastle's Freeman Hospital to fix two holes in his heart and a narrowing of the aorta, but developed a dangerously quick heartbeat afterwards.

Medical experts chilled Finley with a special blanket and put him in a bag, so his body temperature dropped from 36 degrees to just 33.4 degrees. He was also paralysed so he won’t disturb an external pacemaker that was stabilising his heartbeat.

Finley amazed medics by recovering and leaving hospital 12 days later. His parents, Donna Link-Emery, 27, and Aaron Burton, 31, had been told he could be in hospital for six weeks!

“They put him in a little bag that allowed air to flow around his body and he was kept like that for four days,” said mum Donna.

“Amazingly, the freezing process seemed to work and after four days his heart started to maintain a normal rhythm,” Donna also said, reports the Metro.